page_title: Humboldt Bay
section_title: Ecology
hierarchical_section_title: Humboldt Bay / Ecology
caption_attribution_description: English: The BLM-managed Mike Thompson Wildlife Area is a 4.5 mile-long stretch of beach, dunes and tidal marsh that serves as a popular destination for waterfowl hunting, surf fishing and clamming on the south spit of Humboldt Bay, California. Photo by BLM.
context_page_description: Humboldt Bay is a natural bay and a multi-basin, bar-built coastal lagoon located on the rugged North Coast of California, entirely within Humboldt County, United States. It is the largest protected body of water on the West Coast between San Francisco Bay and Puget Sound, the second-largest enclosed bay in California, and the largest port between San Francisco and Coos Bay, Oregon. The largest city adjoining the bay is Eureka, the regional center and county seat of Humboldt County, followed by the town of Arcata. These primary cities, together with adjoining unincorporated communities and several small towns, comprise a Humboldt Bay Area total population of nearly 80,000 people. This comprises nearly 60% of the population of Humboldt County. The bay is home to more than 100 plant species, 300 invertebrate species, 100 fish species, and 200 bird species. In addition, the bay and its complex system of marshes and grasses support hundreds of thousands of migrating and local shore birds.
  Commercially, this second-largest estuary in California is the site of the largest oyster production operations on the West Coast, producing more than half of all oysters farmed in California.
context_section_description: Humboldt Bay and its tidal sloughs are open to fishing year-round. A protected area in the bay is the Humboldt Bay National Wildlife Refuge, created in 1971 for the protection and management of wetlands and bay habitats for migratory birds. The Humboldt Botanical Garden, at the College of the Redwoods near the Bay, preserves and displays local native plants. Humboldt Bay is also recognized for protection by the California Bays and Estuaries Policy.
  In the winter, the bay serves as a feeding and resting site for more than 100,000 birds.  Birds found on the bay include gull species, Caspian tern, brown pelican, cormorant, surf scoter, and common murre.
  The bay is a source of subsistence for a variety of salt-water fish, crustaceans, and mollusks. Sport fishing is permitted. Dungeness crab are fished commercially, and oysters are commercially farmed in the bay. The bay supports more than 100 species of marine and estuarine fish, including green sturgeon, coho and Chinook salmon, steelhead and coastal cutthroat trout, which spawn and rear in its watershed, covering an area of 223 square miles (580 km²).  Coho salmon primarily rear and spawn in Elk River, Freshwater Creek, and Jacoby Creek. A recent study found that 40% of coho in the system rear in the estuary. The federally endangered tidewater goby is found in the bay, along with more common three-spined stickleback, shiner perch and Pacific staghorn sculpin.
  The bay has been invaded by the European green crab, a voracious predator that is known to prey on the young of native crab species, as well as native mussels, oysters, and clams. The invasive European green crab were first documented in Humboldt Bay in 1995 and have been blamed for a decline in clam harvesting. Scientists have not found a way to control them.
  Marine mammals are represented by harbor porpoises, harbor seal, California sea lion and river otter, with Steller sea lion and gray whale found immediately offshore. Leopard sharks have been reported inside the bay, which also provides habitat for young bat rays, feeding on clams, crabs, shrimps, worms, sea cucumbers, brittle stars, various gastropods and isopods.
caption: Mike Thompson Wildlife Area is a 4.5 miles (7.2 km)-long stretch of beach, dunes and tidal marsh that serves as a popular destination for waterfowl hunting, surf fishing, and clamming on the south spit of Humboldt Bay
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